Garnett addition would put Celtics back on the NBA map

The franchise that has won a mere three playoff series since Larry Bird retired in 1992 has suddenly become a major player in the NBA once again.

By Jim Fenton

This is usually the time of year when the NBA gets around to releasing the schedule for the upcoming season.

Safe to say, there are now going to be some last-minute changes that have to be made.

Those Thursday night games on TNT cable and those Sunday matinees on ABC have a new attraction that must be included.

The Boston Celtics are going to be welcomed back to prime time in the 2007-08 season, thanks to the pending acquisition of Kevin Garnett.

The franchise that has won a mere three playoff series since Larry Bird retired in 1992 has suddenly become a major player in the NBA once again.

The Celtics had to mortgage their future and are going to be paying outrageous money for an All-Star nucleus of Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, but the opportunity is one that couldn’t have been passed up.

The chance to acquire one of the 10 best players in the NBA and add him to a team that includes the likes of Pierce and Allen does not come around very often.

The youth movement has officially been scrapped, and the Celtics’ ownership group and executive director of basketball operations Danny Ainge have gone ‘‘all in’’ by dealing for Allen and Garnett in the last 4½ weeks.

Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, players the Celtics hoped to get via the lottery, are distant memories.

Al Jefferson, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff, possibly Ryan Gomes and two first-round draft picks are a hefty price to pay for Garnett. Jefferson is going to be playing the game at a high level for years to come.

The potential reward, though, makes it worth the risk of giving up on a potential future All-Star in Jefferson and Green, who has some promise.

Final details of the blockbuster trade were being worked out, and once issues with Garnett’s contract are taken care of, he will be changing teams for the first time.

Except for a surprising run to the 2002 Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics have been mostly stumbling around since the end of the glorious Bird-Kevin McHale-Robert Parish era.

They have tried all sorts of ways to get back into the picture - losing games in a bid to land Tim Duncan, handing over the franchise to Rick Pitino and going with youth the past couple of years.

Nothing has really worked, and now the Celtics have made a bold move by securing the services of Garnett, who is bound for the Hall of Fame and still has several good seasons left.

He has gone from the leader of a team that five weeks ago was young and lacking experience to one of three All-Stars on a team that will be a favorite to reach the NBA Finals.

What Ainge did on draft night - getting rid of the No. 5 pick, Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak for Allen - makes all the sense in the world now.

A team with just Pierce and Allen would have put the Celtics in the lower tier of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, but the latest move changes that.

A trio of Garnett, who turned 31 in May after averaging 22.4 points, 12.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists, Pierce, who will be 30 in October, and Allen, who celebrated his 32nd birthday on July 20, makes the Celtics a serious threat in the weak East.

The conference was represented by LeBron James and his friends on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals last month, so it will definitely be up for grabs in ’07-08.

The Chicago Bulls are going to be contenders along with the Miami Heat (as long as they have Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal) and the Detroit Pistons.

But no team in the conference can match the Garnett-Pierce-Allen threesome as the Celtics have quality scorers and have added a defensive presence that was lacking.

The price tag will be about $58 million next season for those three players alone, and there is little money to spend on the rest of the roster. Garnett will probably get an extension in excess of $100 million, keeping him under contract through the 2012-13 season.

But the Celtics have bought themselves relevancy in a city where they were a distant third behind the Red Sox and Patriots.

They have also bought themselves a chance to win the Eastern Conference in the next few seasons, which would put them a step away from winning a title for the first time since 1986.

The TD Banknorth Garden is sure to be filled to capacity and the interest level in the Celtics is sure to be high from the time they open training camp in October until the spring.

Garnett has been criticized for failing to deliver the Timberwolves a championship, but his supporting cast has hardly been spectacular.

Minnesota’s best season with Garnett came when he had Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell easing his burden, and the Timberwolves got to the Western Conference finals in 2004.

Having Pierce and Allen alongside is a huge upgrade from that cast, and Garnett has something in common with his two new All-Star teammates.

All three are in their best positions to win big in the NBA, making them three hungry veterans on the same mission.

The start of the season is three months away, but the anticipation is already building for a team that is finally ready for prime time.